Sam Mellinger | Ex-GM Peterson ‘saddened’ by Chiefs’ situation
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
Carl Peterson knows exactly why I called. He knows why some Chiefs fans want to hear from him. In some real ways, this conversation is a beach ball of schadenfreude placed on a tee for the man who effectively ran all things Chiefs for nearly 20 years, then was fired four years ago with his reputation in Kansas City at least frayed.

Peterson knows all of this. He won’t take his biggest swing.

But he will make solid contact.

“I guess like every Chiefs fan, I’m disappointed and I’m saddened by what’s transpired there,” he says. “I think I know and made a real point to learn who the Chiefs fans were and what they wanted. I feel for them, because I’ve always felt the Kansas City Chiefs were, should be, and could be a great franchise.”

There’s more.

“I was very, very fortunate to work for Lamar Hunt for 18 of my 20 years there. He’s the guy who made the difference for me. They’ve fallen on hard times. That’s for sure.”

The point here is not just for Peterson to dance on the Chiefs’ rubble. There is some perspective in remembering what he and Lamar Hunt made together. They built the Chiefs’ brand in the 1990s. Through much of the 1980s, the team was a local afterthought. If they won, cool. If they lost, whatever. Nobody much noticed.

That began to change when Hunt hired Peterson, and Peterson hired coach Marty Schottenheimer and the whole thing just took off, with seven playoff appearances in the first eight years of the 1990s.

The Chiefs’ parking lot became the biggest party in Kansas City. Arrowhead Stadium became one of the toughest places to play in the NFL. Peterson, who lives in New York now, is one of the strongest connections we have to that time.

“We had fun at it,” he says. “We made it a fun thing. We made it a family thing. Lamar believed very much in that, and I did, too. He was a wonderful owner. He’d say, ‘How can I help?’ I’d say, ‘Lamar, I need you to do a contest in the parking lot to judge buses and vans that fans have painted,’ and he loved that.”

Now, of course, that is all different. Lamar’s son Clark fired Peterson two years after taking over, and Peterson says the two never communicate.

The Chiefs made massive personnel changes after Peterson was fired, often dropping thinly veiled shots along the way. Peterson hasn’t been back to Arrowhead since, and remains touchy about not being invited to Schottenheimer’s induction to the team’s Ring of Honor.

It is a vastly different franchise now, and when Scott Pioli took over for Peterson after a 2-14 disaster in 2008, that was part of the point. The Chiefs were broken and needed fixing. A youth movement that started under Peterson — Brandon Flowers, Tamba Hali, Jamaal Charles, Derrick Johnson and other key players who predate Pioli — needed structure, and until this season, there was reason for optimism.

Now, the big story out of the parking lot before Sunday’s loss to the Bengals was the team stopping the mass distribution of flyers listing some unflattering facts about the Chiefs on one side and “FIRE PIOLI” on the other.

The Chiefs have never had a disconnect with their fans like this. That was always a priority with Peterson, sometimes to the point of being criticism. The common knock on the Chiefs was that they cared more about filling the stadium than advancing in the playoffs.

Now, team and town would settle for a fun atmosphere and competitive team. The last man to oversee a run like that watches from a distance.

“I do come back to Kansas City,” he says. “I still have a home there. People on the street, they’re very disappointed. Some of them are angry at what’s transpired. I’m sorry to see that. It’s no longer my watch, so I can have my personal feelings about it, but it’s not my responsibility anymore.”

It is entertaining, but it also shows just how deep a three-ring circus Clark Hunt has made of this franchise. Truth be told, this is why one of Lamar's biggest mistakes was to think the fool he sired had the skills needed to run any sort of business, much less an NFL franchise. Had Lamar wanted him to run the Chiefs successfully, he'd have raised Clark with a less of a silver spoon in his mouth. Today that "Daddy will bail me out" (when it won't) mentality has made the fans of KC victims of snobbery's worst trait, nepotism. The bottom line is that Clark is a weak man and not a savvy business person. sure, he has plenty of coin in the bank, but his daddy put it there, and made sure it will remain their despite the fool that is is son.

It is entertaining, but it also shows just how deep a three-ring circus Clark Hunt has made of this franchise. Truth be told, this is why one of Lamar's biggest mistakes was to think the fool he sired had the skills needed to run any sort of business, much less an NFL franchise. Had Lamar wanted him to run the Chiefs successfully, he'd have raised Clark with a less of a silver spoon in his mouth. Today that "Daddy will bail me out" (when it won't) mentality has made the fans of KC victims of snobbery's worst trait, nepotism. The bottom line is that Clark is a weak man and not a savvy business person. sure, he has plenty of coin in the bank, but his daddy put it there, and made sure it will remain their despite the fool that is is son.

Well we'll see. Time will tell if that is the case. Remember, what we are seeing today was in a sense what Lamar had in place throughout the 70's and 80's.

Clark has had one hire, it looked good on paper but ended up failing miserably. All of these problems can go away if he gets the second hire right. If the second hire ends up failing as well, then all of a sudden we have a pattern developing and at that point I will be worried about Clark.

But if he does get rid of Pioli at the end of the year and does hire what looks like a smart football man and leader who can move this franchise forward, I think at that point credit needs to be given to Clark that he actually cares about wins and losses, which Lamar did not necessarily seem to care about as much as being loyal to his employees...

Jesus, Clark is an SMU valedictorian. They don't hand those out based on your family.

Come on, stop slamming Clark. He's his own man.

__________________My name is Clay. I am a clueless moron when it comes to evaluating football talent. I thought that Pat Mahomes was unworthy of being drafted in the first round, also, I wanted Geno Smith first overall. I also claimed that tyreek hill was undeserving of even being in the CFL. I am wrong 20x more than I'm right and I will troll this site with my uneducated football takes.

Your father trusted his most prized possession to you. In a family where money grows on trees and you are born comfortable this is the only thing you have to be concerned with.

It was his legacy.

His pride and joy he wanted to live on long beyond him.

He trained you for YEARS to run this.

AND YOU HAVE FAILED HORRIBLY.

HORRIBLY...

__________________

Quote:

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

Clark only fails horribly if he proves he has no idea how to hire a GM with his next hire.

He went out and got the most highly praised candidate he could find for his first shot. I don't blame him. In hindsight it was horrible but it was kind of like drafting JaMarcus Russell. A lot of teams would have done it.

__________________My name is Clay. I am a clueless moron when it comes to evaluating football talent. I thought that Pat Mahomes was unworthy of being drafted in the first round, also, I wanted Geno Smith first overall. I also claimed that tyreek hill was undeserving of even being in the CFL. I am wrong 20x more than I'm right and I will troll this site with my uneducated football takes.

Clark only fails horribly if he proves he has no idea how to hire a GM with his next hire.

He went out and got the most highly praised candidate he could find for his first shot. I don't blame him. In hindsight it was horrible but it was kind of like drafting JaMarcus Russell. A lot of teams would have done it.

He has already failed horribly.

Twice...

__________________

Quote:

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

__________________My name is Clay. I am a clueless moron when it comes to evaluating football talent. I thought that Pat Mahomes was unworthy of being drafted in the first round, also, I wanted Geno Smith first overall. I also claimed that tyreek hill was undeserving of even being in the CFL. I am wrong 20x more than I'm right and I will troll this site with my uneducated football takes.

Not to mention the overall quality of the product (I don't care what you're selling the quality of the product is of the most importance) has decreased each and every year save one...

__________________

Quote:

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

__________________My name is Clay. I am a clueless moron when it comes to evaluating football talent. I thought that Pat Mahomes was unworthy of being drafted in the first round, also, I wanted Geno Smith first overall. I also claimed that tyreek hill was undeserving of even being in the CFL. I am wrong 20x more than I'm right and I will troll this site with my uneducated football takes.

__________________My name is Clay. I am a clueless moron when it comes to evaluating football talent. I thought that Pat Mahomes was unworthy of being drafted in the first round, also, I wanted Geno Smith first overall. I also claimed that tyreek hill was undeserving of even being in the CFL. I am wrong 20x more than I'm right and I will troll this site with my uneducated football takes.

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

__________________My name is Clay. I am a clueless moron when it comes to evaluating football talent. I thought that Pat Mahomes was unworthy of being drafted in the first round, also, I wanted Geno Smith first overall. I also claimed that tyreek hill was undeserving of even being in the CFL. I am wrong 20x more than I'm right and I will troll this site with my uneducated football takes.